European Championship Crowns Europe’s Worlds Competitors

Champions from twenty different countries threw down this past weekend in Germany, with each striving to achieve the title of European Championship. Head judged by Upper Deck Entertainment’s Kevin Tewart, the event decided which duelists would represent Europe in the 2006 World Championships one month from now in Tokyo.

With a Top 8 that featured three duelists from Italy, two from Germany, and one representative each from Poland, Austria, and the Netherlands, this was truly a clash of international proportions. Check out all the coverage from the event, and see how this epic event went down, right here on Metagame.com!

New Structure Deck Ships To Stores Next Week

July 12 is Upper Deck Entertainment’s official shipping date for Lord of the Storm, the newest Structure Deck to be released here in North America. As we’ve come to expect, this new pre-constructed collection of 40 cards comes with a mix of never-before-seen stuff, as well as some reprints of old favorites.

The deck is built around hallmark effects of Winged-Beast monsters, and all of the new cards support Winged-Beast and Wind themes. The deck’s flagship ultra rare, Simorgh, Bird of Divinity provides a constant source of burn damage, dishing out up to 1000 damage to both duelists in the end phase of every turn. For each spell or trap card a duelist controls they take 500 less damage from Simorgh’s effect, but in a constructed format you can use cards like Icarus Attack, Lady Ninja Yae, and Swift Birdman Joe to keep the opponent’s spell and trap zone clear. It could have some serious potential with Chain Energy, and with 2700 ATK, it can be quite the beatstick.

This same theme is also supported by Sonic Shooter. The deck’s second exclusive monster, it’s a 1300 ATK pest that can attack directly if the opponent has nothing in the back row. Again, stuff like Harpies Hunting Ground and Byser Shock can create the field conditions this card needs to be successful.

The third card that you’ll only find in Lord of the Storm is Hysteric Party. It’s a trap card that lets you special summon all your “Harpie Lady” cards from the graveyard. Awesome for creating a sudden push of attack power, or for generating tribute fodder on the fly, it’s a great combo with Harpie’s Pet Baby Dragon. Conveniently, the Dragon happens to be reprinted in this Structure Deck.

Speaking of which, the deck has some nice reprints. Slate Warrior, previously only available as a rare video game promo or pricey Tournament Pack card, makes an appearance in non-holo form, which is good news for serious deck builders. Lord of the Storm has a lot of really useful spells and traps too, including Heavy Storm, Mystical Space Typhoon, Nobleman of Crossout, Dust Tornado, Call of the Haunted, and Sakuretsu Armor. Good news for those of us who like maintaining big gauntlets of playable decks for testing.

Lord of the Storm will appear in stores as early as next Wednesday. If you’re interested in picking one up, do a bit of calling around to your local shops and find out when it will arrive in your area. 

Shonen Jump Arlington Less Than Two Weeks Away

The brief lull in North American dueling action will be shattered two weekends from now as hundreds of duelists flood the Arlington Convention Center. It’s been a while since the Shonen Jump circuit has visited the south, and now Texan duelists will get another chance to strut their stuff before the world.

Team GG has already announced that they’ll be in attendance in full force, and this might be a breakthrough event for the recognized dueling group. But Texas is Outphase country, and duelists like Fili Luna and Jason Holloway may step up to take their place at the front of the pack, just as they have before.

Interested in heading out to compete? Check out the Premier Tournament Organizer’s web page for the weekend, JDS Events, for info on start times, entry fees, directions to the venue and more. With Macro Cosmos seeing serious play at the European Championships, and Cyber-Stein taking such a defining role in North America over the past few weeks, this event could be a very innovative one. Metagame.com will be coming to you live from Arlington, so don’t miss all the exclusive feature matches, deck articles, team profiles, interviews, and up-to-the-minute tech info!

This Week on Metagame.com

Mike Rosenberg opens up the week with an article that’s one part history lesson and one part innovation. He looks at Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi and Yamata Dragon, discussing the similarities and differences between them while showing you how you can use each in competitive, tournament-level decks. With a dash of mythological information thrown in to give you an inside look into the inspiration for these powerful monsters, it’s a definite must-read!

Jerome McHale brings you yet another tournament-ready deck on Tuesday, when he shows off his Macro Cosmos build. Jerome has tested Macro Cosmos for quite a while, and if you’ve been interested in running the deck yourself but are wary of its learning curve this is the article you’ve been waiting for. Like so many of Jerome’s columns, this deck is a great list to use if you need a successful Cosmos build for your testing gauntlet.

On Wednesday, I’ll show you a really competitive, highly unique deck in The Apotheosis. It’s been said time and time again: if you want to succeed in this format without running Chaos Return, you have to be using a deck that lets you play a totally different game altogether. Exchange Control does that, waging war on the opponent’s hand and controlling the field in a totally different way than you’re used to. Flat out, this deck can pummel your average cookie-cutter deck into the ground.

Curtis Schultz opens the doors to his Duel Academy on Thursday, and addresses all the tricky rulings that come with using Soul Exchange. Can you Soul Exchange twice on one turn to tribute summon a high-level monster? Can you use it to tribute your opponent’s own Exiled Force? Curtis will answer those questions, and more, in his column this week.

Julia Hedberg hits you with two articles on Friday, and this time around they can be read together for maximum effect. While this week’s Solid Ground continues to detail what kinds of behavior are and are not appropriate for a duelist at a major tournament, Agents of Judgment will show you judges out there how to deal with these problems and educate players. It also touches on communication between staff at an event, which is really important for a head judge to take into consideration, but often goes un-discussed.

Later this weekend, Jae Kim unveils a new deck that he calls New Age Soul Control. No Monarchs? No Brain Control? No problem—this deck uses a totally different spread of tribute monsters to fuel Deck Devastation Virus, and shunt out amazing amounts of control over the opponent’s side of the field. It’s yet another deck that uses Return from the Different Dimension as the powerful support card for innovative ideas that it truly is.

Calvin Tsang stole the show, and the title, at Canadian Nationals less than a week and a half ago, and Matt Peddle is going to explain how he did it. Matt breaks down the ruthlessly aggressive deck that let Calvin sweep the Finals, discussing the deck building decisions that were made and telling you why they worked. One Magician of Faith? Limiter Removal? If the Canuck champ’s deck was a bit awkward to your eye, this article is a must-read.

Finally, James Pennicott brings you another installment of his monthly Breaking the Format column. In the wake of US Nationals, he looks at one card, one combo, and one deck that flew in the face of the weekend’s metagame trends, and shows you how you can take advantage of them yourself. Want some cutting edge tech, and better yet, an understanding of how it works? Check out James’s monthly gem!

Wow, what a packed week! Be sure to hit us up every day for at least one, and sometimes two, of the best articles in dueling today. With the World Championships one month away, and the 2007 dueling season now in full swing, information is your best weapon in these highly competitive times.

As always, thanks for reading Metagame.com!

—Jason Grabher-Meyer

Contributing Editor, Metagame.com